A family-friendly outdoor space is never complete without a play area for the kids. But here’s the thing: you’re not only limited to sandpits, monkey bars and trampolines in creating your children’s zone. There are many other creative options in making your backyard a youth’s paradise.
You only need to consider the different kinds of play important to your children’s development. Play with these play zone ideas that match your kids’ physical, emotional, and cognitive needs.
The Nature Zone
Solitary play is one of the crucial types of play children should experience, wherein they explore and discover things alone, without copying another kid or an adult. Why is this so important? It nurtures the children’s sense of self, making them more in touch with their emotions and thoughts, helping them bond better with other people later.
The best way you can promote this is by creating a nature zone in your yard. A garden offers a lot of interesting stuff your kids will enjoy exploring. Toddlers can pick up flowers and leaves on the paths or watch butterflies and birds. Older kids can play with soil and observe its texture and smell.
A word of caution in here though: make sure that there are no toxic plants in your garden. Have a horticulturist inspect your greenery. And while you’re letting your children be, it’s still important to be there and keep them safe from any untoward incidents.
The Exercise Zone
While there’s play that targets the emotional well-being, there’s also one that taps the physical. Physical play uses motor skills, motivating kids to be active. This is where the trampolines and monkey bars come in. But again, you want to put a more creative flair in your active zone to make it more inviting to children.
Build a mini obstacle race instead. Throw in a few tree trunks, unused tires, PVC pipes and wood panels, and you can already create a fun one. Or if you want to take things up a notch, have a pool installed in your yard.
Swimming could very well be part of your race activities. It should be fun when it’s done with the parents of your children’s playmates. But of course, you can use it as it is just for fun. You may choose fiberglass pools in Utah; these low-maintenance pools are the best for family-friendly backyards.
The Imagination Zone
Of course, there has to be a play area that will improve your children’s brainpower. One of the simplest ways to build this zone is to have chalkboard walls. Kids love to draw and sketch, but sometimes they do it at the expense of your accent walls’ aesthetics indoors. With chalkboard walls outside your home, your children can doodle anything and everything, anytime they want to their heart’s content.
Another thing you can add in your imagination zone is a tree house. This will allow kids to do pretend play, taking different roles as they play house. Perhaps you can make building the structure a family project this next weekend.
Turn your backyard into a youngster’s paradise. Keep in mind your children’s physical, emotional and cognitive needs to create the best outdoor space ever.
